MCAT Master Plan

You are here

Whether you’ve got the full FastPass package, just the book, or are self-studying with AAMC resources, here’s a detailed study plan to help you structure your MCAT journey.

This is a 3-month study plan, and includes the full AAMC-recommended 300 hours of studying (25 hours per week). Twelve weeks is what we recommend for most people. If you are studying for 2 months, 5 months, or anything in between, you can use our other sample study plan outlines to adjust this more detailed plan to fit your schedule.

How this Study Plan is Different

A lot of people try studying for the MCAT in the same way: linearly. They do content review first, studying chapter by chapter like you would for a regular class exam, and figure they’ll start practicing later when they feel ready. This is not a winning strategy for MCAT prep, because the MCAT is different from any test you’ve ever taken before.

First of all, the content is so vast that if you just start reviewing at the beginning without a plan for how to get to the end, you’re never going to make it in time. Second, practicing is how you learn what the test is all about, and how you know whether your studying is actually working--it doesn’t make sense to leave it until the end.

Your plan to study for the MCAT should reflect the test itself. That means starting your practice early, gradually spending a larger and larger percentage of your time practicing, and reviewing your practice. It also means reviewing every single topic covered by the test, but doing so in parallel rather than one subject at a time. The MCAT prioritizes topics that integrate ideas from multiple different fields, so studying the subjects together, rather than compartmentalizing them, will help you get comfortable transitioning between subjects, as well as recognizing those places where the subjects intersect.

This study plan uses the following resources: the MCAT FastPass video course, the FastPass Study Guide, and the following AAMC resources: Official Guide Qs, Q Packs, Section Bank, Sample Test, and Practice Test.

If you just have the book, this study guide works for you as well. Just skip over the lines about the video course (in blue on the calendar).

If you are self-studying with AAMC resources, you can skip over the video elements, and then for each section of the book mentioned, refer to the corresponding section in the AAMC content outline.

If you want to include extra practice tests, just add them on to what’s listed here. We don’t recommend taking more than one practice test a week, since they are incredibly taxing, and because reviewing your performance is really the most important part.